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Port Metro Vancouver responds to city council ban on coal transfers and shipments

Vancouver city council has voted to ban the handling, storage and trans-shipment of coal at its marine terminals and berths, though there are no existing coal facilities and it has no jurisdiction over Port Metro Vancouver.

Photograph by: Gerry Kahrmann
, Vancouver Sun

Port Metro Vancouver is “aware” of Vancouver city council’s recent ban on the handling, storage and trans-shipment of coal at its marine terminals and berths and says that there are no terminals proposed within city limits.

Though there are no existing coal facilities in Vancouver and council has no jurisdiction over the port — the No. 2 exporter of coal in North America that has caused controversy over the planned expansion of its facilities — it voted 9-2 late Tuesday night for the zoning and development bylaw amendment.

Vision Vancouver councillors said they wanted to send a “clear message” to the port that coal, whether metallurgical for steelmaking or thermal for power generation, is not welcome in the municipality, which is trying to have “the cleanest air of any major city in the world” by 2020.

Staff said the motion to ban any future shipments of coal was partly prompted by industry inquiring about possibly shipping coal out of private lands on the city’s northeastern waterfront.

In a statement emailed Wednesday evening by spokeswoman Barbara Joy-Kinsella, the port said “Port Metro Vancouver and the local health authorities have been in discussions regarding their request for a health impact assessment regarding the Fraser Surrey Docks project.”

The statement added “these discussions are still ongoing, in particular with Fraser Health Authority, which is covering Surrey as part of its jurisdiction.”

The port said it “would welcome input from the health authorities” as it reviews the Fraser proposal, however, Vancouver Coastal Health’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Patricia Daly told council Tuesday night that the port and various coal companies have so far ignored calls to implement industry-funded health impact assessments on the proposed expansions.

In June, Metro Vancouver, with the support of Vancouver, Burnaby and the City of North Vancouver, passed a resolution opposing new coal shipments from Surrey’s Fraser River estuary, citing local air shed and global climate change concerns. Environmental groups want to stop the proposed $15-million coal-handling facility, which would ship thermal coal from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming.

“This project review is underway and a decision has not been made,” the port said in its statement Wednesday. “Port Metro Vancouver will not set arbitrary timelines for project review, but make a decision once all of the information and technical reviews are completed and carefully considered.”

Conservative MP David Wilks of Kootenay-Columbia flew in for Tuesday’s council meeting and spoke forcefully against the ban, noting how Metro Vancouver’s goal of “green” residential density is only possible using steel made with metallurgical coal.

“There’s a necessary natural resource, metallurgical coal, that we have to deal with and it’s a world demand,” Wilks said. “If anyone in that (council chamber) can tell me where the replacement for carbon is, I’m sure we’d be willing to do it.”

“Until you find that carbon replacement, you need metallurgical coal,” he said. “We have to work together, because if we start putting up roadblocks (to exports), then it becomes an ‘us against them’ and that isn’t healthy for anybody.”

Wilks said Teck Resources contributes $2.8 million in taxes to the District of Sparwood each year and about 90 per cent of the people there have jobs that are somehow related to the coal mining industry. The company has worked with the area to monitor air quality since 2005 he added.

Vision Coun. Kerry Jang repeatedly voiced his concern over the fact that any coal shipments leaving Vancouver would most likely travel along the BNSF railway and close to schools in Vancouver’s Strathcona, Renfrew and Collingwood neighbourhoods, as indicated in a staff report.

“So you make all the money and my daughter gets cancer. Thank you,” he said to Wilks in chamber.

Kevin Washbrook, director of Voters Taking Action on Climate Change, said Tuesday’s motion was part of a growing call for the port to consult with the citizens of Metro Vancouver before expanding coal exports.

“It may be symbolic because there’s no coal ports here right now, but the pressure to export this American coal out of every nook and cranny and port is high so I wouldn’t be surprised if there were plans out there to do this,” Washbrook said. “We’ve had municipal governments, regional governments, MLAs, MPs and health authorities all calling on the port to slow down and conduct more regionalized consultation and do the comprehensive health assessment and they’ve so far ignored those calls.

“So I think it’s appropriate for the city to use every tool it has at its disposal to protect its citizens if the port is not going to cooperate and consult with the region.”

In its statement Wednesday, Port Metro Vancouver - Canada’s largest port – said it supports more than 57,000 jobs in the Lower Mainland and coal has long been its principle export commodity.

Coal exports are safely being handled by two terminals, Westshore at Roberts Bank and Neptune in North Vancouver, it added.

There are 10 coal mines in B.C., with at least another nine proposed. The existing coal industry provides 26,000 direct and spinoff jobs and a $3.2-billion boost to the province’s economy in 2011, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report commissioned by the Canadian Coal Association. The average annual salary in coal-mining was $97,000 in 2011

Vancouver city council has voted to ban the handling, storage and trans-shipment of coal at its marine terminals and berths, though there are no existing coal facilities and it has no jurisdiction over Port Metro Vancouver.

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